Tackling racism at foundation class

[anemone]

I've been upset by some of the stuff my DD (reception) was saying recently, but don't know how to tackle it. If DD was discussing a given country (e.g. India, China), she would pipe up, 'Their skin is X colour'. I'd deny that was the case, then she'd insist, so I'd end up saying, 'People don't like you to talk about their skin colour, it sometimes makes them sad.' Confusing for her, I'm afraid, but it seems better to say it's just not nice to talk in these terms. In fact I think she's been influenced by one of her friends - the same name keeps turning up as "She says so, so it's OK." Obviously I'm not encouraging that friendship. Any advice?

It all depends on what she is saying. I have taught in foundation stage, and skin colour comes up often. Children do comment on it (my school is primarily asian, and the children often ask me why I have all these 'spots' (freckles)) and if it is a statement such as 'her skin is brown' I have no problem with that, I just agree, or disagree if the skin colour happened to be another colour. It is simply a way of description. We also talk about how we all have different skin colour, some people are a bit browner than others, some are slightly more pink, others are paler - it is part of what makes us unique and special. I think it is good to talk about skin colour.
Has she said anything else that upsets you?
Maybe ask the teacher how she deals with it.

I would agree with Jennifersofia. I teach too (children with SEN) and one of my class regularly comes up and coments on skin colour I usually say 'yes thats right you do have back skin and I have white skin' and she goes away happy.
This child also thinks everyone who is slightly overweight in school is having a baby! she will pat their tummy and blurt it out which quite frankly can be more embarassing.

I also think it's good to talk about colour - your dd must find it very weird you don't want to mention anything about it. My dd is also reception and will say things like, "I have pink hands, but so-and-so's are more brown" or whatever. Can't see what's wrong with that. How can a 4 year old be racsist?

Is she coming out with derogatory language from her friend?

excuse my crap spelling!

Agree with dinny. At this age it is more likely they identify skin differences in the same way as colour of hair or eyes, whether they wear glasses etc. In which case it isn't racist in intent at all just an innocent association and recognition of what disitnguisehs each person from the next.

My mixed race DS is in a class with children of every possible colour. If they are describing someone, e.g if I say 'who is child X'? they will say 'he's tall with hair like this or that, and he's light brown, or dark brown, or white or quite pink' etc etc.

It's only racist if there is an implication of something negative - not simply a description.

My 4yo DD sometimes talks about skin colour. She described her friend as having brown skin. I just said "yes, she's black. You're whiteLots of us are different in lots of ways aren't we?" kind of comment. I think it is good for children to be taking notice of things around them, and acknowledging we are all different, but those difference don't matter.

Is she using derogatory phrases or language? tbh if all she is saying is that people from x country have x colour skin, then I don't really understand the problem. It's purely descriptive and unless she is actually factually incorrect then I wouldn't say anything about it at all.
My dd is almost 6 and has said things like this before. She has asked me why xx in her class has brown skin or a brown face and she has a 'blonde' face pmsl god knows where she got that one from! All she's doing is descibing what she sees, which I think all children of this age do.

I agree you should chat to the teacher so you know you are using the same sort of language etc.

My DS has just started in reception and he was telling me yesterday that some of the children in his class have brown faces and so on. He's not being racist - just observant.

They are too young to have racist views - when they start saying they don't like x because he has a brown face, that's when you need to worry IMO

Thank you all - I've been feeling confused about this. Everything she's said has been perfectly innocent, exactly what you've described here, except for one remark, definitely quoting this other child, that was derogatory. That's when I started to worry about it all. I agree that 4 year olds aren't racist, they are just learning to describe each other.